If you have a special collection for your accountant of yellowing receipts collected in a shoebox, or you have an in-tray overflowing with bits of paper that you really must do something with sometime – you will love this gadget.

The Neat Receipts Scanner promises to “organise life’s paper trail.”

Simply fork over US $200 (or US $100 for the business card version) and you’ll be managing your paperwork with ease, apparently.

Slip each of those receipts through the Neat scanner and the software will extract the key information, plonk it into a spreadsheet and let you analyse your spending by date, amount, client, or whatever else you’d like to report on.

From a harassed messy-desk person to an obsessive bean-counter with just one small gadget? Hooray.

Let’s hope it comes with a matching plastic shirt-pocket protector!

The same company offers a sister product (not a Brother) which will extract details from the business cards you have haphazardly filed in a dusty box in the corner (or is that just me?) and enter them into your Outlook Contacts.

Future versions may even update your Facebook account, send a twitter to your family about what you’ve been buying lately and alert the ATO to any unusual activity. Who knows.

Though I do want to say “get a life,” a small part of me looks at this little scanner with lust born of repressed tidy-desk envy …